PLZplzplzplzplzplzplzplzplz REVIEW!! {gasp} I cannot write without reviews! {drags herslef across the flor, gasping for breath} DO YOU GUYS WANT ME TO HAVE ANOTHER BLOODY WRITER'S BLOCK?!
Audience: {Vigorously shakes their heads}
I thought as much! At least send in {holds up nine fingers} TEN...{Adds a finger} TEN REVIEWS to continue!! AND NO FLAMIES!! Flayme will get you for it, and I will summon Raid of Iron Terror blah blah blah....and so forth...
SO PLZ REVIEW!!
Thanks Kiroi Kitsune13, HokugenShadowWolf, KakashiLvr, Yellow Di and the rest of ya for your continuous support through VFR! Now help me along with SFD, alright?!
Aki had to tie herself to a tree as she watched Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura fight Orochimaru. She bit her lip until it bled from the frustration that she could have prevented Sasuke's Curse Seal and Kyubi's seal. She finally surrendered to her desire, and came down from the cover of the trees when Sakura had placed an unconscious Naruto and Sasuke side by side.
…………
Sakura poured some cool water on a spare rag and dampened Sasuke's feverish head. Tears soaked her cheeks, her mind still fixed on his screaming image.
"Hey." Sakura's head swung up to see Aki crouched on an upturned root, her staff sticking out of her hand.
"Aki?! Where have you been?!" Aki tried to lighten the mood.
"Oh, here and there…" She slid down the root, and squatted down to inspect Sasuke, "I'm sorry…"
Sakura shook her head.
"I should have protected him. Instead, I grew fearful and hesitated to move."
"Fear grips us all. Even to our last breath. But we mustn't let it rule our lives, Sakura." Aki went into her vest pocket, and pulled out a blue leaf.
"You must learn this quickly. Otherwise, not only will your life be in danger, but so will your comrades." Aki broke the leaf, and spread the sap over Sasuke's Adam's apple.
His breathing calmed down, but his forehead was still painted in sweat.
"Keep guard while I tend to them." Sakura nodded and went a certain distance outside of the root's safety.
"I swear, Dosu, you will certainly get a beating from me." Aki whispered her vow as she positioned Naruto's neck so that he could breathe a little easier.
She suddenly heard voices, and looked up to see Dosu, Zaku and Kin standing in front of Sakura, revealing one of her traps. A second trap appeared; a large tied log swung out to smack them away, but Dosu blew the wood to pieces with soundwaves. Aki rose to her feet, snatching her staff.
"Sakura! Get back, ahora!" Sakura slightly panicked and withdrew behind Aki.
"So, how's life….Dosu?" The mummy scarecrow jumped.
Aki laughed darkly with a passion growing in her vocal cords.
"Oh yes, I know you….and you, Zaku, ever used those to cool off?" The plug hand nin's skin crawled in fear.
"How do I know your names?" Aki casually shrugged.
"Pft. Another show off." Dosu, Zaku and Kin squatted down to attack.
"Kill them!" They leapt into the air.
"If you want to kill someone, you better talk to him." Aki pointed above them.
"KONOHA SENPUU!!" All three sound nin were slammed into the ground by a green leg.
Rock Lee landed on the grass, and stood up in front of Aki.
"Finally! I was beginning to worry." Lee taunted the sound nins, and the fight commenced.
"Need help?"
"I can handle this! You just stay back and protect Sakura!" Aki shrugged, and held back.
Aki stayed back until Lee faltered and fell to the ground, losing his stomach and his right inner membrane started to bleed.
(He's been struck with sound. My turn.) Aki walked in front of Lee.
"Bueya huen!" Aki flipped her hand twice as her taunt.
Zaku was going to face her off, but Kin held out an arm and shook her head.
"This girl's mine." Aki grinned, and slipped her headphones to George Michael's "Amazing".
Now she was getting her music high.
Her chakra spiraled up the headphone wire, and soon her entire body was covered in an outline of chakra. Aki bobbed her head, another taunt to fight. Kin was shocked beyond words as to what she was seeing.
"Come on, Freckle Pants; want a hair cut? Pollo?"
"What did you call me?"
"Chicken? Are you chicken?" Aki started to mildly impersonate one.
Kin's eyes flared, and she charged.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Aki shook her head as she went straight through her and into a tree.
"A shadow clone?!" Kin shook her head.
The clone above her started to play the air guitar in mocking her.
"Fell for that one." The voice surrounded the three of them.
"Which one, which one…" Tuschi looked frantically in the trees.
"Heh…"
"KAGE BUSHIN TOJOKEN NO JUTSU!"
"What did she-!?" Dosu's question was answered when a hailstorm of Tojo yo- yo blades shot out from the trees, and aimed for Kin.
"KIN, LOOK OUT!" Zaku slid in front of her, and blew the blades away with his Zankuuha.
He only blew away the frontal charge, and one slid against his side, cutting vest and flesh. Kin heard a zing, and stood rigid in fear as she felt the ice of a blade cut into the warmth of her blood.
"OoooOoooOoo. Nice hairdo!" Kin felt behind her back, and her hand was drenched in her blood and hair strands. It was a good four feet shorter and was unevenly cut.
Aki laughed mischievously from the trees.
"Stop playing these childish games and come down!" Kin was in a berserker rage.
"Fair enough."
How she said that, Dosu got an uneasy feeling.
"Uh, Kin-"
"SHUT UP!"
"I don't think-"
"I SAID SHUT UP!" WHAM!
Kin was run down as Aki barreled rolled down a tree like an armadillo, and zipped back up another tree. Dosu and Zaku threw kunai into the area she had hidden in, and a body landed.
"Pft. Too easy." Sakura gasped, covering her mouth.
Dosu went up to kick Aki's head to make sure she was dead when the body went poof.
"What the-?!" Aki suddenly slammed an upper cut that made the bandages around his mouth seep with blood.
"Too slow, Dosu!" Aki slammed an elbow into his gut, and positioning her feet behind his, slammed a palm fist into his chest, sending him flying backwards.
"HA!" Aki grinned at the sight of Dosu implanted into a tree, but soon changed.
"GUH!" She spat out blood, falling to her knees.
Her hands were gripped around her mid- line, a horrible feeling flaming in her stomach.
(Wha- what's…going on?! My stomach, it feels… like… snakes are inside!) The taste of liquid iron was fresh on her tongue.
Zaku saw this tiny window of opportunity, and performed his Zankuuha on Aki. Her body was flung into an upturned pillar of stone, and she lay on the ground, blood seeping underneath her head. Sakura thought Aki was playing dead, but when she threw her shuriken at Dosu and were blew back at her, and her hair was taken hostage by Kin, she knew Aki was down for the count. Her CD player continued to play.
"What are you trying to be? A sexy ninja?" Kin gripped Sakura's hair tightly in her fist, grinning with contempt.
Sakura let it out: How everyone had protected her, how she had always stayed in the backseat when fighting, how she always was in the way. Not this time, She thought. She pulled out one of her kunai, and gripped it with all of her force.
"Pft. That's useless against me." Sakura grinned.
"What are you talking about?" In a quick swipe, Sakura had slashed her hair off.
Anyone who was conscious at that moment was rooted to the ground in shock. Hidden in the bushes, Shikamaru, Choji and Ino were dumbstruck at what happened. Kin had her hands on a bushel of hair, tongue- tied at what Sakura had sacrificed. Zaku and Dosu were frozen in surprise, Lee barely got past a confused look and Aki still lay still.
Sakura's headband clattered on the dirt. She remembered how she had held herself as a proud ninja, how she had lectured Naruto as though he was a lowlife and how in the end, all she ever saw of them were their backs. She desired to be one of them. This was her climax.
"KIN! KILL HER!" Sakura was too quick for the Sound nin.
Performing two hand seals, she dodged Kin's attack with Kawarimi no Jutsu. Zaku pulled out his shuriken and prepared for Sakura, who charged him head on with a handful of kunai that she flung out in his direction. He blew them back, and the daggers impaled themselves into a hunk of wood.
"Above." Zaku snatched a handful of kunai and threw them up at Sakura, which pierced right through her rosy flesh and stayed in her arms and knees.
"Heh, where are you now?" Zaku hadn't realized Sakura was still coming at him.
"What the-?!" Sakura landed right on top of him and drove the kunai right through his right arm.
In a frenzy induced by Sakura's drive to prove herself, she clamped her teeth onto Zaku's forearm. He screamed in pain, and furiously swiped at Sakura to release him, but all in vain.
…………
Flashes of the past shot through Ino's mind as she saw Sakura get the daylights slapped out of her and yet she still hung on. She remembered when they became friends, when they became rivals and when they swore never to lose to each other. What should she do?
…………
Sakura was flung off of Zaku and landed a small distance away from him, her face bruised and covered in blood. Zaku performed a hand seal and was about to finish her off when Ino, Choji and Shikamaru slid out from the cover of the bushes.
"Great. More weirdos have appeared."
…………
Aki slowly opened her eyes to hear the sounds of punches being taken and shouts being swapped like cards.
"Sas….uke….The seal…." Aki knew what was to happen in a few short moments.
"I think….I'll pass out….again, thanks…." Aki's head dropped.
…………
It was unlike anything Sakura had even seen, much less, the rest of the fighters. His entire left flank was covered in black tattoos that resembled flames.
"I am an avenger…." He glared at Zaku with a demonic madness that consumed his Sharingan eyes.
By this point, Neji and Tenten had intervened to look for Lee, and were now witnesses to Sasuke's ungodly rage as he let the power course through his young body.
"Ino, return to your body! We're hiding!" Shikamaru ran off with Ino's unconscious body, and Choji followed.
(Release!) Ino's spirit spewed out of Kin and returned to her own body.
…………
Sasuke's glare darken, the wrinkles in his nose increased as he snarled. The tattoos spread over his face like an epidemic disaster of small pocks.
Dosu was connecting two and two when Zaku snapped him back to reality.
"No need to fear, Dosu! I'll handle this half dead freak!"
"No, Zaku, wait! Don't you realize-?!" Too late…
"ZANKUUKYOKUHA!!" A massive explosion of air pressure issued from the holes in his hands, sending anything it's its wake to an eternal oblivion.
Everyone ducked their heads as debris flew in all directions, striking anything in its way. The dust cleared up, and Zaku was standing, his hands still out.
"Heh! I've blown him away."
"Blown who away?" A cold voice slithered behind him.
In a sudden and hypersonic speed, Sasuke slapped backhanded at Zaku, sending him high into the air. He slapped his hands together, and mustered up enough chakra.
"Katon Housenka!" Blades of fire shot from his mouth at a fallen Zaku.
"Heh. I can just blow these away!" He was preparing to fire when he noticed a crucial factor; shuriken were hidden in the flames.
They struck him at an unreal speed, cutting through his vest and skin. While that was Sasuke's decoy, and slid underneath Zaku.
"ZAKU, BELOW YOU!!" Dosu was too late.
"Huh?" All he saw was the shadow of Sasuke before he stopped short, his eyes bugging out.
Sasuke was breathing in an inhuman pace, an insane grin possessing his tattooed mouth. He had a foot on Zaku's back while he held both of his arms behind him.
"So, you're proud of these two arms?" His eyes were livid with the demonic influence.
Snapping Zaku's wrists, Sasuke slammed his foot into the square of Zaku's back. A gruesome sound of bone and muscle tissue breaking was heard, and Zaku fell to the dirt, twitching from the pain.
Sasuke's eyes swiveled over to the lone Dosu.
"I hope you will let me have more fun…" His intimidating pose left nothing to question.
This wasn't Sasuke.
…………
Sakura couldn't bear to watch any longer. This wasn't him; it couldn't be! This can't be Sasuke! She, in a suicidal rush, latched onto Sasuke, wrapping her arms around his chest.
"STOP!" She desperately cried, tears flying from her eyes.
To her surprise, he did. His Sharingan eyes turned to look into her damp ivy ones.
"Please…stop…"
Slowly, the tattoo vanished from his left flank. When they had vanished entirely, he fell to the floor, gasping for breath.
"You are strong." Dosu held out his team's Earth Scroll, "We cannot defeat you at this time."
"Please take it as a gift. Let us leave." Dosu picked up Kin and Zaku and started to walk off with them, when Sakura asked about their motives.
Dosu said he could not answer and left without another word.
…………
Aki came back to consciousness as Dosu was walking off with his teammates in his arms.
"Freckle Pants." She whispered, but she didn't move anything except her lips in a smile.
She knew Dosu had heard her. When she sensed they were gone, Aki stood up, cracked her neck twice, and walked over to the aftermath sequence, knowing what should happen was done with.
"Lee. Lee, come on. You gotta get up." Aki slipped an arm underneath Lee, and he was surprised to see himself dangling a few inches from the ground, thanks to Aki's 5.6 height.
Naruto woke up suddenly, and was ranting on about where the Grass genin was, and how Sakura looked different. Shikamaru shook his head, not wanting to explain what had happen a few minutes ago.
Aki placed Lee down on the ground, and pulled out a piece of cotton soaked in an antiseptic herb.
"Man, they did a number on your ear." She inserted the cotton, and let it sit, "Don't you know cotton would be effective against the Sound?"
Tenten came down.
"I'll take it from here." He pulled Lee up by his shoulders and vigorously shook him.
"Hey, HEY! Don't so that! You'll give him a cranium blood cocktail." Aki spun a finger at her temple.
Tenten ignored her as Lee came to.
"How could you be such an idiot?!"
"Haha, can't disagree with you there." Lee wrapped his arms around his folded legs.
"OOH! It's Thickbrows!" Aki slapped a hand to her temple.
"Naruto." Aki's voice was WAY to calm.
"What?"
"Duck."
"What?!" WHAM!
"Don't you DARE be rude to Lee!!" Sakura's punch made Naruto skid into the ground.
"Told ya." Aki pinched her eyelids with one hand.
…………
Night had fallen, the stars wielding the sky overhead. Naruto was snoring in a corner of a large tree, but Sakura was awake. She sat close to Sasuke, watching the stars. She replayed what had happened that day, how she had grown. Her arm was bandaged and small band-aids were scattered all over her body. She looked down at Sasuke who was lying stoically on the ground. She touched a lock of his hair as she continued gazing.
Then she heard it.
Like a snake charmer, she heard music coming from rather close by. Sakura looked around, but an explosion of blue chakra told her what was going on. Aki was singing again.
In a high branch that gave a bird's eyes view of fifty miles of land, Aki was singing her hymn to the night sky. Her chakra was in halloed wisps of an electric blue while green vines of chakra cloaked her shoulders. Her outline was shining in a calm blue while purple wings of chakra rested on her back, giving off small showers of red and white.
Sakura listened, hypnotized by Aki's sultry voice and the lyrics she sang from Anggun's "Secret of the Sea":
"Callin 'cross the blue
It's all I do
One day you'll come back to me
It's a secret of the sea
I'll always love yooou
Alwaaaaays
I see,
Floating on the ocean
Somewhere under the sun
Your golden skin
In cypress and blue
I hear,
Waves that come rolling in
Fleetness of wings
A sound is missing
A sign from you
Callin 'cross the blue
It's all I do
One day you'll come back to me
It's a secret of the sea
I'll always love you
I may never know
Where you did go
Whataver took you from here
On these currents that run deep
I'll always love yooooou
Alwaaaays
We would,
Sail into that big sky
Forget about the time
On the wind we would ride
Watchin' wild birds sweep and glide
I'll linger just a little more
Drifting on a foreign shore
Spend my nights
Waiting out the tides
Callin 'cross the blue
It's all I do
One day you'll come back to me
It's a secret of the sea
I'll always love yooooooou
I may never know
Where you did go
Whataver took you from here
On these currents that run deep
I'll always love yooooooou
Alwaaaaays
Callin 'cross the blue
It's all I do
One day you'll come back to me
It's a secret of the sea
I'll always love yooooooou
I may never know
Where you did go
Whataver took you from here
On these currents that run deep
I'll always love yooooooooou
I'll always love yoooooooou
I'll always love yoooooooou
I will al- waaaays…"